Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
One man might pronounce with rhetoric that he hungers to have what Canada can offer, but there is one thing guaranteed that he will never be able to lay his hands on, and that is The Damn Truth.
One of Canada’s most electrifying bands, The Damn Truth, once more come full throttle to the listener’s attention with their new self-titled studio album, and it is a release that fans of the Montreal band will no doubt salivate over as the immensity of the sound pounds at the ears and the soul like a hammer against the bells of St. Jospeh’s Oratory, the iconic domed building adding a vibrancy in the imagination to the effect the band have had on the rock genre since they blazed on to the scene with Dear In The Headlights.
It’s about making noise, of spoiling the rhetoric, drowning out the bluster and the words of bullies and gusts of rage from the simple idealists, this is about making a statement, of owning the guts to withstand the blowhards and the banal musings of the inflated ego; this is The Damn Truth operating on a frenzy of the cool and collected voice being unstoppable and playing to the reasoned mind with passion and commitment.
Led by the battle-ready lee-La Baum and surrounded with integrity by Tom Shemer, P. Y. Letellier, and Dave Traina, the Canadian quartet brings songs such as the opening declaration of Be Somebody, the tremendous I Just Gotta Let You Know, If I Don’t Make It Home, Mirror Mirror, The Willow, and Killer Whale to the shores of the listener’s senses with a ferocity of spirit and the admonishment to the souls who believe that such assertion can be bought, not only cheaply, but on the sly from beggars and thieves.
Recorded by the legendary Bob Rock, this self-titled release is everything you can ask from the hard rock genre, it is sophisticated, it is energetic, it suffers no fools, and most abidingly it has the authority of the age weaved into every fibre and muscle that infuses every note and frames the lyrics with adrenaline.
A fantastic album, the continued excellent form of The Damn Truth knows no sign of fading.
Ian D. Hall